DOOR IN THE WALL

1. DOOR IN THE WALL http://www.online-literature.com/wellshg/5/ The whole text on-line By H.G. Wells.

2. Background and Biography • H. G. Wells' short story "The Door in the Wall" was first published in 1911 as part of a collection titled The Door in the Wall, and Other Stories. The conflict between science and imagination is the major theme of the story, which was enormously popular when it first appeared. Today Wells' reputation rests almost entirely upon his science fiction novels, which include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898), all of which are acknowledged classics of the science fiction genre and continue to be widely read and adapted into other media. "The Door in the Wall" is considered by both readers and critics to be Wells' finest short story.

3. "The Door in the Wall" examines an issue to which Wells returned repeatedly in his writing: the contrast between aesthetics and science and the difficulty of choosing between them. The protagonist, Lionel Wallace, possesses a vivid imagination but goes into politics, where he is considered extremely rational. Wells himself was both a trained scientist and a writer of fiction, and this theme recurs in several guises in Wells's work. The story suggests both the magic and the danger of a nostalgia for a buried time. It is a story about politician Wallace who, while growing up in a joyless home, discovers a door in a wall leading to an enchanted garden. Wells's recurrent theme of science versus art is part of a wider contrast between the rational and the imaginative elements of experience. Wells has often been seen as being caught on an intellectual battleground between his scientific training in rational thought and his gift of a vivid imagination. Wallace's inability to bridge the gap between his imagination and his rational, scientific side leads to his death.

4. First Reading • Use pg 84 – 85 to describe Lionel Wallace and list all the facts about him that we are told in the story. • Use pg 86 -87 to sketch the ‘enchanted garden’, use the descriptions in the story to inform your picture – and annotate your images with quotations from the text. • Narrative style is…? Similar to which other story we have studied? How? • This is a story within a story – narrator re-telling a story which he wants to “suggest, present, convey…” to the reader, and let the reader “judge for himself”. • Keep a list of events as they occur in the story – literal recounting of the plot. • How old is Lionel Wallace? • What is his occupation? • What school did he and the narrator go to?

5. Plot summary of “The Door in the Wall” • Redmond, the friend of the protagonist Lionel Wallace narrates the story of “The Door in the Wall”. In the beginning of the story, Wallace mentions about his ‘lonely’ childhood until one day when he wandered off from home and into the streets of London where he saw a green door next to the white wall. Wallace is instantly drawn to the ‘door in the wall’ after the first time seeing it and that he wanted to open it. However, due to his family who have high expectations and strict upbringing towards Wallace. Wallace didn’t dare to open the ‘door in the wall’ and that from that day on Wallace is tempted and keeps the secret of ‘the door in the wall’ and fantasize about the enchanted world of behind the wall.

6. Plot summary of “The Door in the Wall” • Wallace mentions about the ‘the door in the wall’ to his father and then he gets punished and as a result of his punishment he surpresses his memory of ‘the door in the wall’ but he often dreams of revisiting the place. Wallace told Redmond that he has passed by ‘the door in the wall’ three times in the past year and that his soul ‘is full of unappeasable regrets’ because of it. One morning a few months later, Wallace is found dead as he mistaken a door at a dangerous construction site as ‘the door in the wall’

7. Settings in ‘The Door in the Wall’ • The door in the wall • - Garden: beautiful, rich with flora, enormous, Lionel’s ideal world and paradise, reflects his own deprived childhood • -Gallery: shows Lionel the story of his life so far and offers him a glimpse into his future • -Panthers: suggests that to stay in England where he spent his traumatised childhood and wants to travel (escape) to somewhere he can forget his past • What is the enchanted garden a metaphor for?

8. Settings in ‘The Door in the Wall’ Reality • -Construction site: causes his death, symbolises a construction site for his childhood dreams • -School: Lionel was often bullied which caused him to fantasise about his secret dream world more often • -House: His mother’s death and his father’s estrangement caused him to start imagining the world behind the “Door in the Wall”

9. Characters in “The Door in the Wall” • REDMOND-narrator-meets old friend Wallace for a dinner one night and learns the story of the door in the wall, but is not sure if he should believe his friends wile tale“But whether he himself saw, or only thought he saw, whether he himself was the possessor of an inestimable privilege, or the victim of a fantastic dream, I cannot pretend to guess.” This unwillingness to judge shows his sense of sympathy towards Wallace- represents the story of reason , making Wallaces story more believable because it is told by what readers assume is a reliable narrator. Furthermore, because Redmond is relating the tale, readers also learn of Wallaces strange death, which seems to verify the tale Wallace tells him at dinner. Redmond’s account of the story also lends it a tragic tone because it is related after Wallace’s death — a feat not possible if Wallace himself was the narrator.

10. Characters in “The Door in the Wall” • LIONEL WALLACE-protangonist and politician-lived a joyless life as a child and discovers a door which leads to a visionary garden of happiness-His cautious nature is shown by his trepidation upon encountering the door, because he knows his father will be angry if he opens it. A child of a strict, Victorian upbringing, Wallace has been conditioned to deny his imagination and put all his effort into becoming successful. Nevertheless, the young Wallace gives in to the temptation — not yet having mastered self-control — and opens the door in the wall, and finds himself in an enchanted garden filled with beautiful flowers, tamed panthers, and friendly children. When Wallace tells his father about the garden, his father punishes him for lying, causing Wallace to suppress the memory of the garden.-Throughout his life, Wallace sees a similar door a few times, but he is too driven by his ambition for worldly success to stop and open it. Now, at age 39 and very successful, Wallace regrets passing up the garden and vows to stop the next time he sees the door. This regret illustrates his desire to give in to imagination and to break free from his rational life. Wallace’s inability to distinguish between reality and fantasy, however, is demonstrated at the story’s end when he is found dead at a construction site, having apparently mistaken a workmen’s door for the door to his garden.

11. Narration techniques in ‘The door in the Wall’ • First person perspective: “The Door in the Wall” is told from the point of view of Redmond, Wallace’s friend. Redmond speaks in the first person (“I”) as he relates Wallace’s story. Through the sensible, trustworthy voice of Redmond, the narrator, the reader is more willing to believe in Wallace’s fantastic story. This particular point of view also allows the reader to find out about Wallace’s death, something that would not have been possible if Wallace told the story himself. • Story written chronologically: The character Wallace reviews his life from past to present in chronological order through the story, providing the reader to formulate their own idea of the ‘the door in the wall’.

12. Narration techniques in ‘The door in the Wall’ • Use of colour symbols: • The symbolic colors in this passage reinforce the contrasting masculine/feminine symbols on which so much of the story hinges. • The amber sunshine and red creeper (masculine, virile, dominant) is juxtaposed with the whiteness of the wall (moon, feminine). • Psychologists claims that leaves are a symbol of happiness. The leaves are described by Wallace as being “blotched yellow and green,” suggesting that his happiness is short-lived. • This is proved by the quote: “the haunting memory of a beauty and happiness that filled his heart with insatiable longings, that made all the interests and spectacle of worldly life seem full and tedious and vain to him.” which states that although Wallace is exceptionally happy inside the garden, he never regains his sense of delight outside of it, and for the remainder of his life he is tormented with the memory.

13. Narration techniques in ‘The door in the Wall’ • Ends with a question: To provide an uncertainty to the reader’s view, a point for the reader to argue about. It makes the ending special and unforgettable as the reader is allowed to imagine the real truth themselves. Is there really a door that leads to a better place or is a place created by Wallace’s imagination as a refuge to his sad childhood.

14. Styles in ‘The Door in the Wall’ • Metaphor: A strong use of metaphor is used in this story to illustrate to the reader about the metaphor of Wallace’s loneliness and alienation. Wallace spends his life longing for the return of the peaceful enchanted place. It is evident that this metaphor emphasizes Wallace’s desire to return to an innocent time (i.e. childhood/door in the wall). Find 6 examples/quotations. • Fantasy: Fantasy literature often creates suspense and leaves reader in a state where which events are caused by natural or supernatural forces. In “The Door in the Wall” readers are pulled in from a normal everyday situation into the fantasy world of ‘the door in the wall’. Therefore, the readers unsure whether if Wallace have visited the magical garden or is it created by his imagination. Find 6 examples /quotations to support this.

15. Styles in ‘The Door in the Wall’ • Symbols • The white wall- is symbolised as Wallace’s desire for nurturing as he did not experience good nurturing from his mother due to the fact that she passed away when he was young. It is also a very feminine symbol. • The green door – is symbolised as fertility. The door itself is a common literary symbol that represents the passageway between the conscious and the unconscious. • The amber sunshine- is symbolised as a masculine, dominant symbol and that it is often juxtaposed with the white wall

16. Theme activity – think / pair / share • Think = make as long a list as you possibly can of all the themes or key ideas or concerns in the story. • Pair = add to your list – then rank the ideas in order of 1st (most important) to last. • Share = whole class to give their top 3 or 4 themes • Importance of imagination / Fantasy / Fantasy vs common sense / Imagination vs rationality / • Alienation / loneliness / Obligations in life / freedom vs expectations /childhood / nostalgia • Fulfilment / Science vs faith

17. Main themes in “The Door in theWall” • Loneliness: Wallace estranged from his father, no real friends, bullied and as a result he escapes to ‘the door in the wall’, his escape from reality. • Insanity: Towards the end, Wallace becomes deranged as he once again tries to find the door in the wall. • Childhood: Wants to experience a ‘real’ childhood • Power and Imagination: Wallace believes ‘the door in the wall’ to be real, overpowers reality. Fantasy has taken over his life. • Reality vs. Imagination: As if the alternative universe was real(door in the wall)

18. Short film adaptation Part One • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD_kFvyHZvo Part Two • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj1HJhCM3Qw&feature=related